


Two Lines

by kkamli



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Blasphemy, Blood and Gore, Bondage, Domestic Violence, M/M, Rape, Religion, Top!Soo, Torture, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-26
Updated: 2015-04-26
Packaged: 2018-03-25 18:52:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 11
Words: 18,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3821071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kkamli/pseuds/kkamli
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kyungsoo and Baekhyun are vampires living out their immortality together. But why?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> WARNING: This story will contain perhaps graphic or offensive depictions of violence, murder, abuse, religious themes, dubious and/or non consensual sex, and other possible triggers. It is meant for audiences 18 and older. Read at your own discretion.
> 
> This was a writing practice work and is likely to contain many errors due to the speed of writing, please be forgiving and offer lots of feedback.
> 
> Read this story on livejournal at this link. http://strongbabypanda.livejournal.com/84174.html  
> Or, read it on asianfanfics at this link. http://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/857741/two-lines-horror-vampire-exo-baekhyun-baeksoo-topsoo

"Please! Oh God!"

The panicking wail came to an end with a sickening, wet chop. My eyes flew open and I found myself sideways, watching the shape of a head as it dropped from it's body. A river of blood washed by rain met me on the pavement, and I tried to move, but I was too heavy.

There were two more shapes, two men, small in frame, really just boys. In my helpless terror, I watched one of them, axe in hand, bending over a headless corpse and drinking from over top it's shoulders. The other stood back, watching with patience, while my heart was hammering my chest into the road.

Moments passed where all I could manage was to watch an uncomfortable rising and falling in the back of the hunched boy embracing the headless. I tasted blood, I felt rain falling. Then the boy's back straightened, and the body was passed to the waiting arms of the other.

I thought the boy would watch and wait again. For a second or so he did, but soon his boots came towards me, his axe hanging low just above them. I managed to scream and turned onto my back. I saw his white arm marked by a cross tattoo as he lifted his weapon.

  
** Two Lines: Chapter One **  
_Kyungsoo's P.O.V_  


"Yuck," Baekhyun said.

The two of us hurriedly tucked our victims into the open coffin waiting in the back of our van. It was a surprisingly tight fit for two, our male was bulkier than we were used to, and I ended up stuffing the girl's head between their legs instead of trying to wedge it in next to her former boyfriend's. I'm sure she didn't mind - she was extremely dead.

My partner's disgust must refer to the jagged cut on their necks. If he had taken care of it, I'm sure it would have been clean. He had the super strength for it, where I didn't. I found myself unsympathetic. "Close it up," I demanded, and then I hopped out of the back.

I leaned against the side of the van for a moment, just next to our logo: "Covenant Funeral Home." I let the rain hit my face, lifting my chin and wiping at what I thought was blood on my mouth. When I lowered my palm and saw not a tinge of pink, it was relieving and disappointing at the same time.

Drinking blood, seeing blood, or even smelling blood is an exciting experience for our kind - whatever exactly that is.

Doors closed and Baekhyun called, "All good."

We met in the front seat of the van. I drove slow in the rain, not out of safety concerns, but because I enjoy it. On the passenger side, I could practically feel Baekhyun's itch for a conversation. I didn't offer him help, only focused on the empty streets.

Still, he found a subject. "They tasted funny, didn't they?"

I almost laughed. It's true that blood can taste very different, from animal to human, from nationality, from diet - there were many factors. I'd still never describe any blood as "funny" tasting.

He smacked his lips. "Maybe it was the rain," he offered, as if he himself had realized his suggestion was ridiculous.

"Maybe," I replied, to humor him.

He moved closer to me in a way that seemed he was attempting not to draw attention. He pulled off his gloves busily and fiercely rubbed his hands together, then he turned on the heat and felt the air blowing from the vents.

We're colder than humans by nature, but after eating we can get very warm, and we adapt to temperature change. You'd never find us sunbathing - we burn in direct sunlight - but heaters are more appreciated by us than humans, I'd guess.

"If you're trying to get warm, take off your coat," I advised. "It's soaked."

"It's okay. I'll wait."

"What are you waiting for?"

"Until we get home," he told me, turning his eyes directly towards me. "We can get warm together, Kyungsoo."

My jaw tightened and I fought against protesting. The words sounded innocent enough, but I'd known him for well over a century. I knew he wanted sex. It had been months since I told him I'd never do it again. I had told him, months before that, the same thing. Ultimately, I had probably declared I would never have sex with Baekhyun again more than thirty times in our long immortal lives, and each time I eventually broke that declaration.

Baekhyun is my childe, meaning I turned him into whatever he is on my own. He is mine, and in a way, I am his. I care for him and wish to please him. Sexually, things get complicated. He too often forgets his unlimited strength, and when he does, I can feel the thick binding on my own.

The symbol of a cross takes away the strength of our kind, and such a symbol is tattooed to each of my wrists. Two lines, permanently stealing my power. Unfortunately, new marks and wounds on my skin fade, making the signs impossible to destroy.

"Or not," Baekhyun spoke meekly.

"I'll think about it," I gave him.

It didn't seem like a comfort. He rubbed his hands together some more and looked uncomfortable.

Our garage made unloading the casket a discreet and dry experience. I left it and the bodies to Baekhyun in our lab. He needed to examine them and remove them of any pacemakers. I was to preheat the incinerator.

The mortuary, three stories on the scrawling grounds of cemeteries, was both a real business and a home to us. We'd been there for over a decade, behind old but well kept walls. We would be burning more than our latest victims tonight. There were some bodies in our morgue we were actually getting paid to handle.

It was never a short or simple process, this work, but neither was digging graves.

We waited by the crematory as bodies burned. Baekhyun had a new subject in a book he'd been reading, for which he was giving me a full report. I had little to add. I admired that he could still find appreciation in things like that. Reading had grown old to me decades ago. I'd much rather listen to Baekhyun's colorful summaries.

"So she has to pick between her little sister and her boyfriend. Guess who she picks. Guess."

"I give up." But I smiled, trying to encourage him.

"Neeeee~ther~." Baekhyun laughed. "Seriously, neither. She choked and they both died. How often does someone write a story like that? So you can imagine why I didn't sleep, but. I told myself ten chapters a night, and that was already number ten. Okay, it might have been eleven."

I stared at the light in his eyes, the curve of his lips. I touched my shoulder to his and kissed his colorless cheek. There was a reason I always broke my resolve when it came to sex with Baekhyun. As long as he'd been mine, I still managed to desire him. Sometimes, I desired him simply because he was beautiful, in all of the ways I couldn't be. Other times, my lust for him grew darker.

We had thick blinds and curtains throughout the home, but the sunlight would set our windows to a soft glow all the same. It was our only light inside of my bedroom, and it reminded me of a place long ago where only the white of my skin could be clearly seen. Now, it was our skin that could be seen.

I pressed Baekhyun's back to my bed and pulled up chains that rested between the headboard and mattress. There was a hitch in his breath as I shut cuffs around his wrists. I felt around the embossed crosses, and wondered if, when he has his power drained by cross, he can feel it leave all at once. Either way, this time, he wouldn't be allowed to accidentally use his strength against me.

I removed his clothes slowly, relishing in my control, and he didn't dare to protest or beg me for more, faster, though I knew well he wished for it. My touch was cruel, pinching and rough hands roaming his body with the intention of turning white red although I'd never achieve such a result. His whimpering was quiet, and I rewarded him for that after a while, pushing his knees to his chest and gently kissing behind his thighs.

When I entered Baekhyun, however - when I fucked him and he screamed, it was punishment. His screams were echos of mine from long over a century ago, screams then caused by his blood, his father. His punishment was for the things that man did to me, for the times he failed to end it, and for the strength he dared to hold over me after.

As cold as my body was, the pit of my gut burned hungry for his pain, though I could never be so evil as to take enough of it that I would be satisfied.

"I love you, Baekhyun," I whispered, just as his screams grew loud enough to drown it out.


	2. Chapter 2

It was a long time ago. The countryside home hadn't a lantern lit when our carriage arrived. As brilliant as the stars were so deep into the night, they cast an an eerie tint over the residence. Curving high roofs and multitudes of sharp angles made up what could have been three of the house I grew up in. It seemed like a palace, especially set against the groomed hillside and trees .

I should have been impressed then, but I wasn't. I was afraid. I'd never known my father, but that he was important and rich. He'd never attempted to know me, until, I guess, my older brother died. I was to inherit everything from him, including his work, which I knew nothing about.

I was uncomfortably twisting in my robes, which were a mess after the discomfort of a long ride, when my driver came into view and I asked, "Why is no one here to greet us?"

The worried look on his face wasn't a comfort. He hesitated too long before he said, "Wait here," and went ahead to the door. I watched him, keeping my back against the carriage. He was knocking, and I was squinting to see him in the darkness from my distance. The harsh shadows in the house's architecture looked as if they'd swallow him up in a second.

The sound of galloping finally stole my attention. A horse approached fast, running gracefully into view. I could only stare at the rider, a wide man with grayed stubble. I noticed a shining cross clasping his dark cloak, and the same shape marked his wrist with black color.

"You must be my son," the man said as I stared. "Baekhyun."

  
** Two Lines: Chapter Two **  
_Baekhyun's P.O.V_  


"Kyungsoo!!! KYUNGSOO!!!"

I hollered over the sound of Kyungsoo's buzzing alarm. It was minutes past three, and he must have woke up early. Giving up on getting my hands out of his stupid chains, I continued to yell and I curved as much as possible, trying to get the clock in the grip of my feet. If I couldn't press the snooze button with my toe, I'd just throw the damn thing on the floor and break it.

My arms were sore in a way they would never be if it wasn't for the shape of the cross. I'm sure I was supposed to feel sympathetic for Kyungsoo like this, but it's not like I would ever leave him in bondage for hours at a time. I know he suffered the feeling like a hundred years ago, but that was then - this is 2014.

I had the alarm between my feet for a second before it slipped and crashed on the floor.

The buzzing continued.

"KyungsoooOooOoOoOo!!"

He came in at a casual pace, hair wet and bathrobe on. He flicked on the light switch and laughed. "Did you think I left you here?"

I straightened myself on the bed, huffing miserably. "You did. You did leave me here."

"Well, I could hear you." He bent and turned the alarm off, then returned it to the bedside table. I was annoyed to see it looked to be in perfect condition.

"Let me out of these," I demanded. I watched his expression go hard before quickly adding, "Please. My sire."

"Since you asked nicely," he said, smiling contentedly.

After the rude awakening, I managed to get in a good mood. Last night might have not been ideal, but it was something. I spent my shower wondering if there was something special I could do for Kyungsoo - maybe soften him up a bit. It had been a while since I attempted a good cliche red rose romance.

We were hosting an indoor memorial today. I had to wear a black suit.

Kyungsoo was speaking to our priest when I came down. He'd been with us since we moved to this town, old then and older now. His hair was pure white, his face wrinkled, eyes tired. His services were better before, but they grew gloomy like the rest of this place.

The two of them wear matching, solemn expressions through the ceremony. I stood at the back of the room by the door, looking at a crowd of people wearing black. I get so sick of the color black.

When we first started working like this, I couldn't stand to hear the prayers, the religion. For lack of a better word, we're vampires. The undead. What use is religion to us? The very symbol of Christianity is our kryptonite, and yet we chose a profession like this.

Eventually, I grew numb to it, and now the priest's monotone psalm goes in one ear and out the other.

Two women toward the back of the room where I stood whispered to each other noticeably. "He's as white as a ghost," one said, her eyes stuck on Kyungsoo.

"Strange people," the other said in an almost consoling way.

I always, for some reason, liked hearing that. It was surprisingly rare that our unique features were acknowledged. It's amazing what humans are blind to in this world, maybe even more amazing that once I was just the same as them.

When the ceremony was over, those women were some of the first out. I held them up for a moment, stepping in close and putting my hand on their shoulders. "We'll see you again soon," I said, smiling and lengthening my fangs.

They each looked somewhere between mortified and dazed, and I took my time enjoying the expressions before another woman cleared her throat. I moved from their way, letting them walk towards the sunlit door, where the priest bid everyone farewell.

I turned to Kyungsoo. He gave me a knowing glare. I just laughed. He saw small pranks like that as risky. I was pretty confident they weren't.

The house was quiet as the sun began to set. I finished mopping and put the supplies away. Distantly, I could hear Kyungsoo watching the news upstairs. I followed the low sound into a room that we shared. Though we both had bedrooms of our own, this one was something like a community space.

He was curled into his usual big chair with an alert expression to contrast his lazy posture.

"Interesting stuff?" I questioned, passing by to get the book I've been working on off of the shelf.

"People missing," Kyungsoo said.

"Oh, what? Junhyung can't do his job any more?" I glared towards the TV. Junhyung was another one of our kind that lived around here. We kept our distance from other vampires, which is what we found was pretty standard. Vampires liked to communicate with each other from afar, sticking to pairs or small groups, reaching out only when necessary. Kyungsoo preferred that necessary was never, since he had a big weakness to hide.

Junhyung was especially 'important', though. He had some influence around town and usually managed to keep cases of vampire victims from getting plastered all over the media.

Not now, I realized. A graphic that read 'breaking' flashed across the screen and was followed by a message about a body found, drained of blood.

It was a rare thing that I got scared. For some reason, though it was nothing we hadn't faced before, that short moment on the news terrified me.

"We shouldn't have been killing so many," Kyungsoo told me. He was driving fast, and I was watching buildings scroll by. He continued, "We could have been eating dogs. Cats, mice. What were we thinking to kill so many humans?"

"We've been safe here for a decade, Kyungsoo." I dropped my head against the window, groaning. "Maybe it's nothing. We'll talk to Junhyung and then we'll eat. Everything normal."

"We should buy chickens," Kyungsoo said. "We can eat chickens."

"Kyungsoo," I said. "Yuck."

Junhyung's friend, another vampire, ran a bar across town from us. It's where we'd met them officially to begin with, and never since had we been and found no other vampires.

We walked down to the place, our van parked a few car lengths down. A closed sign hung on the door. Kyungsoo and I looked at each other. I was relieved that his expression was calm, thoughtful. I was so relieved that I threw my arms around him and squeezed him. He laughed, asking, "What?", and I thought everything would be okay.

I let go when a thumping sound caught my attention. I saw a striped cat, jumping at a moth that fluttered up towards a street lamp.

"Hmm," I said, looking at Kyungsoo. "Poor cat."

It had been far from the romantic night I pictured, but instead of chaining me up, Kyungsoo held me from behind in bed that night and kissed the back of my neck.

"Should we move?" I asked him, trying to exhaust my concerns until I could only think of good thoughts.

"Maybe," Kyungsoo said. "We have a lot of room for chickens here though."

"So gross~," I sang, wiggling as if I wanted out of his grip, but thankful when I felt his arms tighten on me.

"Nothing changes yet," Kyungsoo said softly. "Maybe we'll hear from them soon."

"Probably just a slip up. They've probably gotta work hard and fix it." I nodded to convince myself.

"Mmhmm," Kyungsoo said, and sounded so tired that I wasn't sure he'd actually listened. Tired or not, he slipped his hand down the waist of my pants and stroked along the skin on my hip. I smiled, leaned back, and twisted, trying to encourage his touch. His grip tightened and he whispered to my neck, "Touch yourself, love."

I parted from him to take my clothes off before I returned to my position. His hand brushed slow and automatic up and down my back while I moaned and jerked into my own hand. He was gentle, teasing, and automatic, so natural that both of us could have already been asleep until after a long time, he pushed into me and I was loud enough to wake the graves surrounding our house.

I fell asleep in a mess, thoughts of exposure and other vampires and moving forgotten


	3. Chapter 3

At night, the countryside had been dark to my eyes, but it was far darker deep in the woods. The trees were tall and cluttered and dizzying. I feared for my life just trying to keep up with my father, who stayed ahead far enough that whenever I reached out for him, I just missed a grip of his cloak.

I had so many questions for him and found myself too afraid to voice any. He'd told me to follow him quietly. I was tired, the night must have been near over. I couldn't imagine why we weren't sleeping, why he'd be walking so urgently into darkness. I'd always been taught to fear the night and every distant sound provoked that fear of mine.

There was a clearing - wide, grassy and marked with tree stumps. Somehow the starlight found it's way there and I hurried, almost passing my father to get closer to that light.

"Calm down," he said, continuing at his leisure pace. He sat his lantern on a stump at the side of the clearing and walked to the shadows.

I hesitated long enough for him to turn toward me with impatience. I rushed again to stand behind him. "Father," I called, and he ignored me, leading me through the clearing and toward the trees. I looked back at his abandoned lantern and bit my tongue. I must trust him, I thought. He was my paternal blood. 

When I looked ahead again, I realized he wasn't leading me further through the trees. There was a house just ahead - no, too small to be. A wood shed, but with a cross nailed to the front of it, as if it was a miniature church.

He must have had a key to the padlock on the door. He stepped in front of it and removed it a quick moment later. He turned to me full of expectations and he said, "Go in."

I must trust him, I repeated to myself as I opened the door. It was so dark inside. I could barely make anything out. Just something white at the back. I took a step in, then another, before I noticed that it was moving. I froze and squinted. With horror, I realized I was staring at a body chained to a cross. My vision adjusted in time for me to make out a snarling face with sharp teeth. Then darkness.

  
** Two Lines: Chapter Three **  
_Baekhyun's P.O.V_  


My forehead pressed against the dashboard just over the vent. It blew hot air against my nose and made the rest of my body feel like ice. I groaned, but tried to keep my head steadily placed, despite the vibrations of our moving van.

"Cheer up," Kyungsoo told me.

"I'm hungry."

"I know. We're going to get food."

"I want a human," I whined to him. Feeling afraid didn't agree with me. It made me angry and violent. I wanted to crush the threat. I wanted humans to know that it was them who should be afraid, not us. Those police on television needed to be taught a lesson - there was nothing they could do to us. "I'm a vampire, Kyungsoo."

"Vampire," Kyungsoo scoffed. I knew he hated the word. Our inaccurate, fictionalized counterpart. But we deserved a name for what we were, and it was close enough for me.

"We are," I told him and sat up straight. "Vampires. Better than humans. We shouldn't have to be in hiding. We have been in this world for longer than they ever will be. We're smarter and stronger."

The van jerked as he hit the brakes. I looked around and realized he'd almost missed a stop sign.

"Are we stronger?" He asked, voice quiet.

I regretted my words. I looked at him, apologetic, but he didn't look back. He just crossed the intersection.

The butcher's little store was nice. It was clean but it smelled like death and the man had a nice smile. I couldn't help making a face when Kyungsoo placed the order for congealed ox blood, and he made light of it, laughing.

"I'm not a big fan either," he said with a wink.

"Have a nice night," Kyungsoo said, courteously smiling at the man before leading the way out, plastic bag in hand.

When we made it onto the sidewalk, I reached to grab it, wanting to help. Kyungsoo jerked away.

Our van was parked a walk down the street. We were barely feet from the butcher's shop, though, when a low laugh caught our attention. We both turned around.

The man was tall and slim - which I could tell even though he was dressed for the cold weather, with two shirts and a coat on top of it. They were colorful clothes, red and blue and yellow and green, and he was bright in more ways than that. His grin showed white, straight teeth, and lit up his pale face.

I knew at once he was another vampire, though not one I'd met before.

"Something funny?" Kyungsoo challenged, looking tense. I noticed him pulling the sleeves of his coat down further over his hands, hiding the marks on his wrists.

I moved closer to him and put a hand on his shoulder. I wanted him to know there was no reason to be afraid.

"I knew some others would show up here," the man said. "I'm Chanyeol."

I liked him. He just looked so nice, not some kind of wannabe intimidating like most other vampires, and his voice was deep and soothing. "I'm Baekhyun," I said. "This is my sire, Kyungsoo."

"Sire?" He laughed again. "Ah, that's good. I call mine a 'maker'. Sire is way fancier. Let me guess - you guys are old as dirt."

Kyungsoo shifted and asked, "Did you come to buy blood?"

"Nah. I came to find some poor souls who would." He walked closer to us and I could feel Kyungsoo fighting not to draw backwards.

"Well we were looking for others too," I said. "There used to be plenty at this one bar, but it's been closed for the last four nights. This one of them had all of these connections and he usually.."

"Junhyung," Chanyeol said, stopping me with a raised hand. "Yeah, yeah. I know. Don't worry so much. We're getting things under control."

"Who's 'we'?" Kyungsoo asked.

"Little group of mine," Chanyeol answered vaguely. "We're in The Towers apartments over on the west end of the city. Number 164. We won't mind you two stopping by."

"You really think you have this all under control?" I asked, smiling. "We could kill someone if we wanted to?"

"Uh, shh?" Chanyeol chuckled. "Yeah, I'd say we're in the clear. But why should you trust me?" I noticed him wink at Kyungsoo. He must be a good judge of character.

"Good question," Kyungsoo said flatly. "Baekhyun, we should head back for the night."

"Nice meeting you." Chanyeol put his hands in his pockets, tilting his head a little and clearly inspecting Kyungsoo. "Looks like a nice town you've got here. I guess we'll be getting used to each other."

A part of me wished we weren't going home so soon, but that idea made me smile. The others we've met before have never really been our style, but I felt like - I could really be friends with Chanyeol.

Chunks of blood were not ideal. I sat at the kitchen table, trying to prepare myself as Kyungsoo warmed it for us in a pot.

"As soon as things settle down on the news, we're drinking like.. five humans in one night," I declared.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Kyungsoo said, though he gave me a little bit of a smile. "Besides, I wouldn't be so sure that day is coming. Even if Chanyeol is able to pull this all together, the city will be on edge. They'll be looking for the next thing to talk about just as much as they won't stop looking for answers to this. I'm not so sure we shouldn't leave."

"Leave? Move?"

"We've been here a good long time," Kyungsoo said. "Maybe it's time for our next thing. A new start."

"Maybe," I agreed, but I thought of Chanyeol and what he'd said about getting used to each other, and the idea of leaving was depressing. "We'll see, right?"

"We'll see," he confirmed as he poured bloody goop into glasses and I automatically gagged.

When he put the glass down in front of me, all I would do was touch it. I decided to watch him finish his first. He held his nose as he gulped it down, and a lot of it clung to the bottom of his glass when he sat it down. He wiped his mouth, but I saw the distasteful look on his face.

"It's gross, isn't it?" I questioned him.

"Just don't think about it," was his console.

I really tried not to. I lifted the glass to my lips, groaning as I tilted it back. Kyungsoo came to my side and held my nose for me, saying, "Don't smell it."

I whimpered miserably and sucked it slowly into my mouth. He laughed at me, and instructed, "Quickly." It was probably good advice, so I opened my mouth wider. He helped shove my glass back and the blood slopped all of a sudden into my mouth. I tried to cough it up, but Kyungsoo knocked the glass aside and crashing to the floor, so he could put his hand over my mouth.

If I wasn't what I am, I would have choked. After a long struggle, though, I got the blood down and breathed deeply while Kyungsoo laughed.

"Yuck," I said.

"Never again," he promised, smiling.

I thought he was in a good mood.

He cuffed my hands one at a time. The chain between the cuffs and the headboard was too short to move my wrists more than an inch once they were on. I rested my hands as well as I could on top of the pillow under them. My stomach was down on the mattress this time, clothes already off which was good because it meant there wouldn't be any cuts or tears to them.

I felt lube, warm and wet as he spread it directly into me, pushing in two fingers at once. My hips jerked involuntarily and I felt helpless. I pressed my face into the pillow under it and groaned loud.

He laid himself on my back, fingers digging deeper into my ass while he kissed my neck the way he always does. The strength in his hand was a lot, fingers tense and shaking into me and it was good as much as it was humiliating. He whispered to me, "You're mine. Always."

I tried to agree and it came out as a muffled moan. There was pain then, a sharp tearing into my skin. He bit me. I twisted my head and screamed loud until he withdrew his teeth. I tried to hold still while he pulled his fingers out of me and let his weight up off of my back.

As soon as he was off of me, I pulled for the freedom of my hands, a meaningless effort that hurt my wrists in their restraints.

"Shh," he said, and touched my fresh wound, at first light enough to be just irritating, then hard and cruel so that I screamed again. "There, there," he said. When I was quiet again, he reached his blood wet fingers against my lips, sloppily dragging them around before he pushed them in my mouth. Through the taste of my blood, there was a hint of lube there.

"Suck," he said, so I did. He questioned, "It's better than ox blood, isn't it? Think I could live off of you? Keep you like a human pet?"

It was strange how much I let it bother me. I wanted to bite his fingers, but I didn't. Right now, he held every power over me. No, as my sire, he always held every power over me.

He pulled his hand from my mouth and grabbed onto my hips. He said, "On your knees so I can fuck you, Baekhyun."

I pulled each of my legs up slowly and let my forehead rest on top of my arms. He kept his grip on my hips, just tightened it when I was where he wanted me. His fingers groped at whatever of my flesh was in reach, scratched or rubbed but mostly poked so hard it was as if he was trying to punch through my skin.

It went on for a second too long, anxiousness haunting me into prompting him. "Touch me, Kyungsoo. Please."

"I am touching you, Baekhyun," he said, but I know he knew what I meant. "Do you want me to get you off? Want me to rub your cock and fuck you at the same time? I'm going to, Baekhyun. But you're going to earn it first. Now.. where else should I bite?"

When he took the chains off of me, I was half unconscious already. He kissed my forehead and said, "Good night, I love you," but I didn't have the energy to say the same.


	4. Chapter 4

My right wrist bled. Tattooing was a different, longer, and more painful process back then. I'd been dizzy, but I didn't cry. Now I stared at the black crosses marking my skin, feeling utterly proud.

Taegon sat by my side and pulled my hands into his lap, gently patting the skin with an alcohol soaked towel. I flinched, but he didn't mock me. "I'm so proud of you, Kyungsoo," he said, so my heart fluttered. "Wherever you go in life, God will be with you."

"And we match as well," I said happily and took his hand in mind, twisting them to see his wrist and compare how similar our marks were. Just about the same, I thought.

He was the closest thing to a father I had, though he was only about twelve years my elder. My own father had died when I was young. I was sent to Taegon when I was just becoming a man - to be his apprentice, to learn of God and, as I would find out, so much more.

"We do," he chuckled and pulled me close, kissing the top of my head.

I leaned in and just enjoyed silence for a moment, before my mind wandered and I sat up straight to ask. "Will your son.. will Baekbeom have marks like this?"

"One day. When he's ready," Taegon said.

"And Baekhyun?"

Taegon hugged me, sighing. "Baekhyun... is going to live another life. A safer life."

I inspected him, uncertainly. "But we are safe now. We have the mark of the cross. The devil has no power towards us."

"The mark will help to protect us, but we are not immune to pain, as you might have noticed." He meaningfully squeezed the cloth around my wrist, so I flinched again. "Remember this, Kyungsoo," he repeated, "We are not immune to pain."

  
** Two Lines: Chapter Four **   
_Kyungsoo's P.O.V_   


The crowd moved outside for the burial. I stood in the doorway, looking into the hall where the front door was open for the line of black clothed people trailing out. They were especially sad today. The boy they buried was young, died in a car accident. I could still hear sobbing from the front of the long line.

When they were all out, our priest nodded to me and I nodded back. He closed the door, blocking the light from the sun.

I turned and found Baekhyun undressing, pulling away his tie and shrugging off his blazer. When he noticed I was watching, he smiled at me. "I've got some embalming to do," he said. "I thought I'd get it done before the sun went down today. So we could have more time tonight, you know?"

I nodded. "Do you want any help?"

"I've got this," he assured me, stepping over and kissing my cheek. It seemed like he might just fly by, so I grabbed onto his arm and pulled him back.

"I love you," I said.

He grinned and hugged me. I wanted a kiss, but he stepped back and pushed his jacket and tie into my arms. "Will you clean this for me then?"

"Pfft," I said. I gathered the items in my arms, watching him walk away before I got motivated enough to take the clothes to the laundry room.

I was folding. There was a knock on the door. It couldn't be the priest, he'd know to walk in without a knock. I could only imagine it was part of the procession, returning for a left belonging or a need to use the bathroom. I exhaled upon returning to the front door, and when I pulled it open I stepped behind it to shield myself from any sunlight that would come in with the guest.

A lacy blue parasol twirled into my sight, then Chanyeol pulled the door from my hand and shut it. "Hello again, Kyungsoo," he said with a grin as he turned to me. He snapped the parasol closed one handed. His other hand clutched a large purse.

It felt like he wanted me to grin with him. I wasn't going to. In the days since we met Chanyeol, Baekhyun tried to encourage me to meet with him again. I wasn't ready for it. Whatever my childe thought, I couldn't so easily trust or rely on others of our kind - and there was a reason I didn't invite them to our home.

Seeing him here now was something I could only take as a threat.

"How did you find us?" I tried not to sound as angry as I was. "How did you get here?"

"Please," he laughed. "It's a cloudy day. You're really a cautious type, aren't you?" He wandered, entering the first room, where funerals were held, passing empty chairs and inspecting the floral arrangement on the podium.

I followed him, repeating my first question, "How did you find us?"

"Your van says Covenant Funeral Homes, doesn't it?" He shook his head. "What a job for the undead. You must be one sick mother fucker to revolve your life around human death like this."

"Why are you here?"

"Bringing good tidings," he answered and turned back to me, holding out his purse. "Human blood. We have some pull at the hospital now, so there you are."

I took it and sat it on a chair to unclasp it and look in. Plastic packets of blood were mixed in with ice packs.

He continued, "Figured you guys were still laying low. That or doing a good job disposing bodies - but hey, that does look kind of like your forte, right? You could probably help us out a bunch."

I turned to him. "Maybe one day. But you're new here. We don't know you."

He moved his arm fast, grabbing onto my hand and pulling it to himself to shove up my sleeve. There wasn't much of a choice. I used my other hand to punch him in the chin. He loosened his grip enough for me to yank my hand away, then I kicked his legs out from under him and watched him fall.

He didn't fight back, he just laid back on the floor laughing hysterically, like I'd told him a joke instead of took him down. "Ex-hunter," he said. "Got it."

"What did you say?"

"Look, sire Kyungsoo." Chanyeol got up on his feet, wiped off his knees, even though they hadn't touched the floor. "Me and my group aren't the kinda people to hold someone's past against them. We're not gonna hurt you because of two lines on your wrist."

"I don't know what you're talking about." I moved behind the chair with the bag full of blood, but stood strong there, glaring at him.

"Yes you do." He grinned and picked up his parasol. twirling it in his fingers. "But you've got nothing to fear. Unless, well, unless it's not in the past. But that's ridiculous, right?"

It wasn't something I had to deal with before, an unfamiliar someone of our kind directly confronting me about my weakness. My instinct was to punch my fingers through his throat, but I couldn't do that even if it was something I should do. "Who the fuck do you think you are?"

"Chanyeol?" We both looked to the doorway. Baekhyun's sleeves were up and his shirt partially unbuttoned and disheveled. It made him look especially helpless in his blatant confusion. "How did you get here?"

Chanyeol chuckled.

I needed to protect Baekhyun. I looked at Chanyeol again and demanded. "Leave us alone."

He put his hands up in a surrendering gesture. The parasol was precariously balanced between his thumb and index finger. "Alright," he said. "How bout I go?"

"Wait. What?" Baekhyun stepped in closer. "Back up, what's going on?"

"I was just trying to help," Chanyeol said and dropped his hands by his side. "I shouldn't have come uninvited. That's uh, a no no for vampires anyway, huh?" He winked at Baekhyun. I felt rage boiling my insides, ready to burst.

"Kyungsoo," Baekhyun said, looking at me as if he was hurt and as if I was the one hurting him. I scowled at him. He must have not understood that as weak as I might physically be by comparison, I still had to make choices like this for him - choices to protect him.

"Look, if either of you wanna talk, invitation is still open to our place. 164, don't forget." Chanyeol shrugged before he stepped to the door. Both of us were quiet as he snapped his parasol open and left the house, the door shutting behind him.

"He just walked out while the sun was up," Baekhyun said, stuck in amazement.

I walked to the hall, but I paused just long enough to tell him, "It's cloudy."

He followed behind. "What do you mean? We can do that? What, we just need some girly umbrella and we can go outside during the daytime? Why didn't you tell me that?"

"It's stupid," I said, thinking it must be. "Risky." I stomped up the stairs. "It's pointlessly dangerous."

"But he just did it like it was nothing," Baekhyun argued, several steps behind. "Why was he here? Why didn't you call me?"

"Why are you interrogating me over his actions?" I countered, seeing red. I stopped in front of the door of my bedroom, tried to calm myself, stretched my neck, but he kept talking, asking questions that I couldn't comprehend because I was so furious. I only knew that he was talking, blaming me, mad at me again as if he had any right, as if he was some tortured victim.

I turned around, but he wasn't there any more. I looked across the hall into an open room, and saw light spread through it. For one angry moment, I wanted to walk into that room and find him a pile of ash in the sunlight. I regretted the thought when the fear that it could too easily be reality struck, that after all of this time he could just be gone.

It was somehow difficult to walk straight. I held onto the doorway when I reached it and pulled myself through.

He stood there in front of the window, staring out like he was seeing something beautiful instead of lingering dangerously close to his own demise.

"You idiot," I said. I think I did.

"Kyungsoo," he said with a gentle voice. "It's fine. It's warm."

I pushed him away from the window, my hand grasping his shoulder and my wrist pressing into his arm to hold off his power. When I had him against a wall, I used my other hand, and my knees, and my feet to hit and kick every vulnerable part of his body as he feebly tried and failed to shove me away. When he got too good at blocking, I grabbed his hair and hit his head, again and again into the wood of the wall behind it. I wanted to see him bleed or bruise, but he wouldn't, so I settled in wishing for his tears.

I shoved him down to the floor, forgetting that to stay stronger than him, my wrist needed to stay in contact. I kicked him and kicked him, and he had every ability to fight me off, but he didn't. He stayed down and blocked his face, so I couldn't have the satisfaction of his watering eyes. Pathetic.

I kicked him a final time, wishing to hear the crack of bones, but all I heard was his scream.

I left the room. I went to mine. The night was quiet and I didn't feed.


	5. Chapter 5

The woman had an aged face, defined cheek bones and piercing eyes. I saw all of that over her snarling fangs. I was always troubled by how, as white as their skin was, they looked human. That was until a wooden spike penetrated their chests.

I held the back of her neck, my wrist pressed tight into it as I thrusted the stake into her. I watched her white skin coated with a layer of dark colorless dust before it fell away as if there was never anyone beneath it. Some was swept off with the wind, but most of it dropped into a pile where she once stood.

I brushed some of the ash off of my cloak, sighing.

"That was a good kill, Kyungsoo." It was Taegon.

"You're late," I accused, returning my stake to it's hiding spot within my coat. "I wouldn't count on finding any others here."

He stepped into view, tiredly moving to my side with a wobble in his step. His eyes and his voice were tired. "I'm sorry, Kyungsoo."

I broke at the sound, shoulders slumping. "You don't look well."

"I'm less of a man without my wife," he confessed, pulling me to him, hugging me.

"You smell more and more like wine." I was disappointed, but I returned the embrace, put my head on his shoulder. "Taegon, maybe you can be with her. You don't have to involve yourself or Baekbeom in this any more. It can be my burden."

His laugh was low and rough. I felt the shake of it. "I'm proud of how far you've come, but this is something in our blood. You are.. here to..." He trailed off with his voice in a strange slur. His hand moved hard up and down my back, and his other dipped beneath my waist. His hips pushed into mine.

"No." I took his hands off of me and stepped backwards. "You're drunk. You don't know what you're doing."

"It's okay," he said in a calming way, reaching for me again.

I got violent. I shoved him backwards and wanted him to fall, or to just be gone, to make this moment a pile of ash on the ground.

I stared at him. For a moment, he looked like someone I had never met. I repeated, this time, I think, talking more to myself.

"You don't know what you're doing.."

I left him there as fast as I could.

  
** Two Lines: Chapter Five **  
_Kyungsoo's P.O.V_  


The call came in the morning. Our priest was dead.

I took it as a sign. When I woke from my sleep, I started looking at real estate. We had a good budget to work off of. It'd be easy enough to get a new start somewhere. We didn't have to work monotonous jobs surrounded by death any more, if we didn't want to. There was nothing we had to do.

Baekhyun came into my room. He didn't knock, but he didn't need to. He opened the door and sat on the edge of my bed, looking over my shoulder at the computer screen. "Are we moving?"

I wasn't sure. I said "Yes" anyway.

"Oh," he said, passing up the opportunity to argue. I looked at him and noticed he looked unhappy. For only a second, I thought of apologizing to him for the night before, then I was sure he hadn't earned any such apology.

He left my room, and at sunset, I heard him leave the house. I thought he might come back in, but when our appointment arrived at 7:15PM, he wasn't home yet.

I opened the door. The man was young and his gaze was sharp. He was dressed in a long white coat that made him look somewhat noble, contrasting with pierced ears and chopped hair. He was also tall enough that I felt bitter annoyance, having to raise my chin to him.

"I'm Kris," he said, looking closely at me. "About Father Kim."

He'd called in the appointment. I reached my hand out to shake his. "Kyungsoo."

When he shook my hand, his coat fell back just enough for me to glimpse two lines on his wrist. A cross tattoo. Staring, it occurred to me after a few seconds that I was keeping his hand hostage, and I let it go. "Come in."

Our priest had no family. Kris had been staying with him while he was visiting from China. In my office, he sat down across from me in a wooden chair. He only mentioned then, "You're cold."

"It's cold in here." He was staring at me in a way that felt uncomfortable. I wished Baekhyun was with me.

"Is it?" He didn't look convinced. I felt angry tension take hold of my muscles.

"They're having a funeral for him," he said slowly. "A teacher he knew, holding a service at a Catholic church two days from now. It's in the afternoon."

"So he's only here for cremation," I speculated. "Or are you inviting me?"

"I said it's in the afternoon." He leaned forward slightly. I knew this was an interrogation. "The sun will be up. He told me you're allergic to daylight."

"I wouldn't say it like that," I said.

"You'd be surprised by how many have the same problem."

"No, I wouldn't." I'd never purposefully showed someone before, but instinct guided me. It seemed like a defense when I yanked my sleeve up and turned my wrist into his sight.

He stared and sat upright again.

We were both quiet. Each second stretched out. I was nervous. The sharpness in his eyes told me something. It told me he could end me, if he decided to.

"I'd like to be here for it, if that's alright," he spoke, finally.

"Of course it is," I said.

"As soon as possible."

"How about seven in the morning? Unless you don't like any of the urns we have on hand, it can be done that quickly."

"The urn doesn't matter. He wanted his ashes spread on the grounds here."

It surprised me, a bit. I knew he liked it here, but I certainly didn't know he liked it here that much. From what I knew, we shared our priest with a few other funeral homes and churches as well. "I see.. well, I have to get you to sign some things."

I walked him to the door when he was finished. He nodded at me, but didn't say goodbye. The door closed.

I found myself in desperate need of blood. I'd left the blood from Chanyeol, but I was relieved to see Baekhyun had stuck it in the refrigerator. I probably only needed one pack of it, but I sucked down four of them, each unpleasantly cold but satisfying despite it.

Panic only set in after. If Kris was a hunter, and I couldn't imagine him not being, there could be others - or even just he could be enough to hurt Baekhyun. I called Baekhyun's cell phone, and it rang in an upstairs room. He'd left it. He usually did.

I got in the van, knowing he couldn't have walked far, but worried he might have got help. After I drove around a few blocks, I couldn't think of anywhere else to look.

That's how I ended up at The Towers apartments, standing in front of the door marked 164.

I didn't recognize the person opening the door. I recognized it as another immortal, pale skin and a pretty young face, but it wasn't someone I'd seen before. Before he could say a thing, I questioned him, "Is Baekhyun here?"

"Chanyeol~ it's for you~."

I narrowed my eyes. A second later, the door opened wider and Chanyeol joined the boy in the doorway, grinning.

"Did you finish all of the blood I gave you so soon?"

"I'm just looking for Baekhyun," I answered.

"He's not here."

"Thanks." I turned and walked. He followed.

"It's dangerous out there for vampires right now," he said. "Hunters in town."

I was trying to not to cringe at his use of the word vampires. I continued walking, without any patience. "I noticed," I said.

"I wanna help you find him."

I was quiet as I returned to the van. Next to the driver's door, I finally paused and turned toward him. I tensed when he didn't stop walking toward me. He ended up uncomfortably close, placing his hand on the door of the van, just next to me.

"If you two want to survive here, you need our help."

"We're leaving," I said, straightening and glaring. I was ready to fight. Inwardly, I begged him to make one move against me. It didn't matter that he was stronger - I could take that from him.

"Leaving."

"Moving away, as soon as possible. If you want to help find Baekhyun, fine, look for him, and then tell him to bring his ass." I turned away and knocked his hand off of the door so I could open it.

"You swear you're not with them?" Chanyeol questioned, stepping back. "You're not a vampire vampire hunter?"

"I'm not any of those things," I answered, then I pulled the door shut.

I used half a tank of gas driving around the city looking for Baekhyun, but I didn't find him. When I returned home, I spent a long time sitting outside with the graves and worrying. I was there until the first light, then I urged myself to finally go inside. I would need a long shower before Kris came.


	6. Chapter 6

The smell of something salty had me nauseated upon waking. My head was aching and cold. I reached up and felt a damp cloth lying on it. I pulled it off as I opened my eyes and took in the sight of an unfamiliar bedroom.

A small platter next to me had soup and a bowl of rice. It looked warm, couldn't have been there for long. I ignored it for the time. sitting up for a look around. Bright, orange light was coloring the room from an open window. The air was fresh and pleasant, a little bit cool for the late summer it was in. I saw my clothes folded on top of a wooden vanity before I even realized I wasn't dressed.

I rubbed my head and my eyes, trying to decide how much of the night before had only been a dream. I remembered a pale, naked body in chains and a set of inhuman teeth.

"You fainted." It was an old voice. I turned to see a man sitting in the corner. He was plump and had a wide jaw, his hair full and dark gray while his eyes were beady and staring. I pulled the thin blanket further over my lap. He continued, "I think you should eat something. You'll need your strength."

"Where's my father?" It was only the most reasonable of the questions that flew through my mind.

"Taegon," The man paused, looking thoughtful before he continued, "Your father will be around soon." He had a strange, rough laugh that sounded out of place. "I imagine you're wanting to know what happened."

"Yes?"

"Well that's easy. You looked into the eyes of the devil and you weren't strong enough. No shame in it. Don't let your father tell you otherwise."

"That thing I saw was real?" My insides were squirming and the world spun. I laid back down, hoping one or both of those would settle.

"It was real. A demon. Don't doubt it for a second."

"And my father?"

"What of him?"

I remembered hitting the ground and blacking out. I remembered arms coming under me, lifting me off of the floor. I remembered opening my eyes one more time, just long enough to see my father's face, pale and scowling with sharp, white teeth.

"Is he a demon?"

  
** Two Lines: Chapter Six **   
_Baekhyun's P.O.V._   


I leaned against a red door, listening.

"What was that all about?"

"I've got a crush, what can I say?"

I threw myself backwards. I was disappointed that was all I'd hear, but Chanyeol was returning fast. The red door slung open and I stood there trying to look guiltless.

Chanyeol didn't even pay attention to me until the door was closed. He showed me a purple tube and announced, "Got it."

I smiled. "Oh, good."

He lowered it, grinning wide as he stepped up to me, encircling my waist with his long arms and tugging me against him. He must have seen through to my curiosity, because he said, "Yes. Kyungsoo came to look for you. But I sent him away, you're safe."

I frowned as long as he couldn't see it anyway, but I put my arms around him too. The moment was short lived. He pushed me off and turned away, cheerfully approaching the other guest in his room.

Lying on the floor, amongst strewn laundry and comic books, was a muscular human boy. His hands and feet were tied with rope and his clothes were ripped, even bloodied in places. I don't know how long Chanyeol had him before. He'd been here when I arrived, passed out then and only barely waking up now. Bruising under the mess of dark bangs on his head told me he might have a concussion.

Chanyeol knelt next to him, setting the purple tube to one side. He had to look around for a moment, eventually lifting up a shirt on the floor to find a roll of duct tape. He tore a strip off and put it over the human's mouth, saying now, "Come here. You could probably use a bite, huh?"

"You don't mind?" I tried to play it cool, but it had been driving me crazy. I stepped over to kneel next to Chanyeol, just waiting for one more confirmation.

"Go ahead," he urged, moving his hand onto my back for a moment. "However you want him. I wanna see."

I hadn't been a way from Kyungsoo for a full night, but I missed him. It felt like doing something terribly wrong to hide from him, but at the same time, I needed to impress Chanyeol. I wasn't sure about my feelings for my sire, but I was sure about that. I wanted Chanyeol to be amazed by me. I wanted to show him the strength I had, that Kyungsoo loathed.

I grabbed the human by his neck and listened, satisfied, to the last of a whimper he could make before my grip was tight enough to take away his sound. I lifted him into a sitting position and straddled his lap, without hesitation biting into his shoulder where his sleeve was ripped.

Biting into a human is different than drinking their blood. In that moment, you're tied to someone else, absorbing strength and taking it for yourself. If you let them live, within days they'll be immortal like you. This one wouldn't live. I could taste his oncoming death before Chanyeol shoved me off of him. I hit the floor hard, but it didn't hurt - I felt invincible.

Chanyeol bit me and it was nothing like when Kyungsoo did. I could fight him and he could take it. His fangs ripped a chunk of my skin out when I shoved him off. My blood spilled onto him when I climbed on top, drawing a yell from him when I slammed my fist into his face and busted his lip. Red splashed onto the white of his skin and I dragged fingers through it, finger painting his cheeks until he threw me off of him. The force of it broke the door of the closet I hit. I still couldn't feel pain. I was on my feet before he came to me again, but he grabbed my neck in a tight grip and lifted me, holding me into the broken door and tearing the zipper from my pants.

I wouldn't die if he suffocated me, but it was uncomfortable and if it went far enough, I'd pass out. He kissed me and tasted of his own blood. I used both of my hands to hold his neck and squeeze, so we were both breathless, and there was a wonder of which one of us would black out first, a competition of trembling fingers trapping throats.

He tugged me away from the wall and closer to himself, piercing my bottom lip with his fangs with a vengeance. This time I could feel the pain and the gush of blood falling over my chin. My fingers loosened enough for him to escape and I heard his heavy breath before he let go of me and I could have my own. I inhaled my own blood and coughed. He claimed the chance to push me down on the floor, tore my jeans from my hips and pinned me with a strong hand on my upper back while his finger prodded dry into the crevice of my ass. I saw the purple tube of lubrication lying across the floor, forgotten along with the human boy. I laughed until my eyes teared up.

It was a high. I was barely thinking. I'd never been with someone as strong as me before and somewhere deep in me there was guilt for the pleasure I took from it. I knew I belonged to Kyungsoo, but Chanyeol was some kind of drug. He was guitar riffs breaking a century of silence, violently screeching fear into me so that for a moment, he had all of me while I tried to figure out if he was good, bad, or nothing.

He pulled me backwards into his lap and I realized two things, that he somehow he got his clothes off and that his hands were so big, both of them on my stomach almost hid it completely. I pulled off my shirt and he bit into the center of my back so that blood fell neatly down my spine.

I thought that the top meant power and straddling him, pulling him into me even when it hurt, I felt like I had won our unspoken contest until his grip on me tightened and it was up to him when I would rise and fall.

We were loud, I remember not always knowing if it was him moaning or me. There was a knock on the door, one of his roommates telling us to quiet down, but neither of us listened. We laughed like teenagers and changed positions, trying to take each other down, trying to hurt each other with the side effect of getting each other off.

I don't remember where it ended.

I woke up with my hands in knotted ropes and a metal cross slipped in next to them. I would have thought I was home with Kyungsoo if not for the distinct colorful mess that was Chanyeol's bedroom. The human I'd bit was dead on the floor, a deep slash on his back.

I was more confused by the fact that I was dressed than anything else. An oversized t-shirt and loose sweatpants, noticeably clean of any bleeding that I knew I did. For a little bit, I pulled on the knots that bound me, but I soon found them to be too tricky, and they would tighten whenever I stressed them. "Chanyeol," I finally called, feeling too shy to scream it like I would have screamed Kyungsoo. I raised my voice just barely above speaking level to call again, "Chanyeol!"

"He's not here." The voice that spoke was behind the door. I didn't recognize it.

I looked toward the window. The sun was still down. "Can you untie me?"

"No," the voice answered, but the door opened. I sat up to look. "Who are you?"

"Jongin," was the answer. He looked more like the kind I was used to, clothes black and expression solemn. He stared at me for a long, lingering moment before he stepped inside and shut the door. "I can't untie you."

"Well, you can use some scissors or something," I suggested.

He almost smiled. "No. I mean you have to be our prisoner now." He stepped closer. "We hunt hunters. Need bait. Sorry."

Denial. I had to deny it. "That's not. Why would you just tell me that like it's nothing? Why did you bother to-- why did Chanyeol bother to--"

"He's into betrayal. Sorry."

"I don't believe you."

"That's fine. He wanted to tell you about this himself. Watch the look on your face or whatever. You're just giving him an opportunity to do that." He shrugged and leaned closer, offering, "I really am sorry."

"Stop saying that!" I strained in the ropes. I wanted to hit him. Whether it was true or not, that he could speak to me so casually about it, I wanted to make him suffer. I wanted to force emotion and tears out of him, instead of feeling anything like it on my own.

He straightened and blinked at me.

Another voice called into the room. "Jongin," it said, "you better leave him alone."

I saw Jongin smirk before he turned and walked out. I wanted to believe that smirk meant it was a stupid joke, but I couldn't convince myself. All of the signs had been there and it's not like I had exactly trusted Chanyeol to begin with.

I went numb.


	7. Chapter 7

My hands shook on my cup. It was an herbal tea, some nightcap to get me sleeping again courtesy of a woman I attended church with. I was so used to being up during the night. I wanted nothing now but to sleep through the rest of them in my life. The reality of Taegon's touch on me was something I couldn't face. I couldn't look at him the same. He didn't see himself the way I saw him. He had never tried to be a father to me, if I thought about it. He was a man of sin, fighting himself when he struck down the literal demons.

It had taken me a week to convince myself of that.

I put the cup on the table by my chair, giving up on it. The smell of the herbs wasn't the comfort I'd hoped them to be. I couldn't relax.

The knock on the door lifted my guard higher. I stood slow and went to pull one of the wooden stakes from the closet where my cloak hung. There was a knock again before I made it to the door. I breathed behind it before I opened it. I never knew it was Taegon until I'd hit the floor, and the stake was far gone from my grip.

He was on top of me, breathing not the smell of wine but the smell of blood. I screamed, but his hand held my mouth. He bit my neck and sucked my blood until I had no strength left. My head dropped and I watched dark liquid spread on the floor, listening to the sound of him pulling my clothes away.

  
** Two Lines: Chapter Seven **   
_Kyungsoo's P.O.V._   


"Is everything okay?" Kris' eyes were large with curiosity. He was a different man than the one I met yesterday. Actually, he was kind of cute.

"I don't usually do this by myself," I said, circling the button that would roll 'Father Kim's body into the burner.

Kris stepped to my side and hit it for me, giving me a somewhat harder look.

We were quiet. I wasn't nervous.

Nearly half an hour later, I made herbal tea for him in the kitchen. My hand was steady, placing the cup in front of him. He thanked me with a nod and sipped fearless of the heat.

I sat next to him at our small, barely used kitchen table and sighed. "You hunt the undead."

"And you are the undead," he said, lowering his cup. "Is that right?"

"Yes," I answered, uncertain of where my bravery was coming from but glad for it. "Plan on killing me?"

"Maybe," he answered. "You?"

"No." I laughed, bitter. "I'm not planning on it, anyway."

"Hm." He nodded and sipped the tea again. It still looked hot.

I waited a moment before I asked, convincing myself that he'd give me enough truth to be worth it. "Have you killed any recently?"

"Shortly after we got into town. There was a group of three. They were starving and weak. Easy kills."

I knew it wouldn't have been Baekhyun and that was enough. "Hm," I imitated him before my silence.

"You used to be one of us?" He questioned. "Before you were turned?"

I slowly nodded the confession. "A long time ago. More than a hundred years."

"You kill humans now?"

I didn't even consider lying. "Yes."

He didn't look surprised. Our trust in each other was odd. I vaguely wondered if we were secretly under the influence, breathing in alcohol.

"We're leaving," I offered after a while. "Me and my childe plan to move."

"It could be too late," he suggested. "You are having tea with a hunter."

"I'm not having tea," I pointed out. I smiled when he rolled his eyes, apparently annoyed with the technicality. I added, "I don't think it's too late now."

It was more comfortable after that. The elephant in the room addressed, we were in our own minds, planning our moves against each other. He finished his tea and I washed his cup before we returned to wait by the crematory.

"It's my first time," he said after a long while. When I looked at him, questioning, he explained himself, "Talking to one of your kind outside of a fight."

"I quit hunting before I was turned," I decided to tell him. "Just a few days before. I realized, fangs and white skin weren't the only source of sin. Two lines on each of my wrists didn't protect me from darkness. Are we bad for murdering your kind? Are you bad for murdering ours? Or is the truth that everyone is bad in some way or another?"

"I'm aware that things aren't black and white," he said. "But in a war, you fight for your country, without wondering about the opinions of soldiers."

I laughed.

"What?"

"That's stupid."

He didn't look offended. He looked dangerously close to breaking into laughter himself, but he settled into a slight smile and a shake of his head. "You're a terrible host."

"I'm not myself today."

We were quiet until it came time to collect the ashes. They filled one of our most basic urns and I walked Kris to the door.

He turned to me, lingering. "I think you should be the one to do it." He held the urn to me. "He would prefer that."

"I don't think we were as close as you seem to think," I told him, staring at the urn.

"It isn't that." He sighed heavily, straightened his shoulders. "Father Kim was an atheist."

I stared.

He chuckled. "I can go out there and get emotional about the spreading of his remains, or you can go out there with distant appreciation of human death that he would have secretly approved of." He pushed the urn further towards me and I took it without much more thought.

"Goodbye, Kyungsoo."

He left.

When it was dark, I dressed warmly without a real need to and went outside to spread the priest's remains. It felt strange to think of him like that - 'the priest', who was an atheist. Like the hunter who became a vampire, it was a terrible contradiction.

The best I could do was not leave the ash in an ugly pile, looking like it needed to be swept away. I tilted the urn and let the wind take it as I walked around, wondering what was special about this place to Father Kim, wondering why he hid his beliefs until his death, wondering why Kris was special enough to hear otherwise.

I looked again and again toward the path leading to our door, hoping to see Baekhyun coming. I tried not to be worried. The hunters hadn't hurt him. I wondered if he could be mad at me and whether or not he deserved to be.

I felt angry at myself for even questioning it. Even if he deserved his anger for once, he wouldn't deserve to leave me this way - have me worrying.

I sat at a gravestone, calming myself. The empty urn rolled from me and I couldn't bring myself to care. It might be about time to waste another half tank searching, I thought, when I noticed a car rolling up.

I couldn't tell who got out of the car from my place on the grass. I stood on my feet, but soon saw that whoever it was was walking my way. I stood and waited with hope, but my heart sunk.

It was Chanyeol.

"No luck yet with the whole Baekhyun thing, huh?"

I glared at him and walked around tombstones, heading for the house. He followed.

"Maybe I know something you don't know," he said.

"Then you can tell me or fuck off." I wasn't going to play his game. The mere suggestion of it was infuriating.

"He could be in trouble."

"I know." I turned to face him with a glare. "I don't care. Fuck off."

Chanyeol looked smug, giving me a very punchable smirk as he stepped closer, hands in the pockets of his coat. "And if I don't? What are you going to do?"

A raging side of me thought it would be better to try and have him kill me than to back down after that. I thought about how long it would take me to get my axe from the shed, and I imagined his head jaggedly cut from the rest of his body. I wondered how long it would take before he burst into dust, so that I couldn't enjoy the satisfaction of his death any longer.

I made myself turn and walk again, but he rushed up behind me and grabbed around my waist. He was stronger than me, I already knew that, so I froze. I knew he'd like it if I struggled, because I was the same. I listened carefully as he whispered against my ear.

"I know where he is," he said, moving his hands on me. "I have him. He came to me, scared of you. I fucked him all night while you stayed back and worried." He laughed, then said, "I'll give him back to you. You can have revenge. I just want a little something in return."

"Chanyeol," I laughed softly. "The only way I'd fuck you is if I had a guaranteed chance of biting your dick off."

I moved forward. He grabbed my arm and twisted it, pulling me back to him.

"Bet not," he said, smiling widely.


	8. Chapter 8

It was cold when I first awoke. I thought it was because I had no clothes. It took a while before I'd learn how difficult it would be to get warm now that I was what I was. I felt heavy in the chains that held each of my arms to a cross, like my body ached to fall flat. I didn't have to wonder where I was, because I'd been here many times before. It was where Taegon spent hours, figuring out every weakness of the undead that we would manage to capture.

I could hear voices outside, all masculine. I didn't strain to hear them, instead I focused on pulling myself free. I knew what he was now - I was sure I knew I was the same. Whatever was planned and even if I escaped it, I wasn't sure anything would be okay ever again. One way or another, though, I needed to fight.

The door opened just as I pulled one hand free of it's restraint. Two men came forward fast. One was Taegon, the other I had never seen before. I cried out as they grabbed onto me. I was surprised hearing myself, my voice feral and growling. Taegon's grip offered no warmth, but the second man's skin felt like a comfort on mine even when he was manhandling me. I tried to attack him. I knew he was weak, and I felt I was stronger. I was wrong. I couldn't get free of either of them, but they pulled the chain from my other arm off of me and brought me down to the floor.

I saw a nervous look on the human's face and honed in on it. I kept lunging for him, but soon Taegon alone had the strength to hold me down, clutching each of my arms and holding them over my head. The human held onto my legs until he was a safe distance away, but I didn't give up trying to kick him.

"You can see what he truly is," Taegon said with a forced shake in his voice, sounding nearly breathless as he urged both the man inside with us, and those who were gathering at the door. "You look at the face of a demon, sent by the devil himself. Here is where we prove the strength of God. He is ours to control, ours to pour our sin into. Hasang, show them."

The man inside came forward. He knelt before I could kick his legs from under him, pushing mine apart so he could comfortably kneel between. I noticed other men coming forward before I shut my eyes. This wasn't happening.

Hasang cut his arm open. I tasted his blood dripping over my lips and opened my mouth to catch it, but it stopped too soon. I licked and bit on my lips, and the hint of blood there was the only comfort I'd have. One after the other, over the course of hours, they raped me. Taegon said prayers, and under his breath whispered to some how I would never age, how I'd always look beautiful to tempt the sin out of them, and how God would approve because of how I, a demon, hated it all.

  
** Two Lines: Chapter Eight **   
_Kyungsoo's P.O.V._   


Chanyeol held my arms down over my head once he got me on the ground. His fingers squeezed just above my elbows, a fair distance from the cross tattoos that would take his power from him. I told myself not to fight, to stay still and piss him off with sarcastic remarks, but I was scared. This couldn't happen.

Not again.

I stretched just one of my arms, tugging his grip along with it. I tried to go slow, but panic as he forced a kiss onto my mouth urged me to move faster. I bit his lip. He laughed and bled into my mouth, biting my lip back. He was so self-assured. I touched my wrist to the hand that held my arm with effort, and I wasn't sure it was enough, but the stress told me it was now or never.

I used my knee, appropriately slammed it between his legs. His scream was the sign that it was enough and I turned on him, flipping him to his back and straddling him, lying my wrist on his forehead and punching into his jaw over and over. I screamed at him, but I'm not even sure what I said. I heard the crack of bones, but I didn't stop. At the first sight of blood pouring out of his mouth, over his already cracked lip, I lost control.

My arm was sore when I stopped and his face was unrecognizable. I left my wrist on his forehead and kept staring at him. I needed to know where Baekhyun was, but he didn't look conscious enough to give me an answer.

I stood up, finding my legs stiff and my knuckles bleeding. I kept watching him for a while, backing away several steps before I felt comfortable enough to turn. I brushed hair out of my face, likely spreading blood into it. I assured myself it didn't matter, all that mattered was finding Baekhyun, then hopefully getting the hell out of this city.

The chains were easy to find. The stake took some digging.

I returned to the graveyard and Chanyeol was still there, unmoving. I used his shirt to wipe blood off of his face. It wasn't bad enough. He'd have to wake up soon. I clasped the shackles around his wrists and threw him over my shoulder, holding the stake to the back of his leg because the moment he tried anything, I was going to be ready to cause him a world of pain if not death.

I shoved him into the passenger seat of the car he brought. I wasn't about to get his blood all over my van.

Halfway on the ride to West End, he opened his eyes. I was checking the radio for news or any decent music to help take some of the edge off. As soon as I saw him stirring, I hit the power off and switched the stake to the hand on the wheel closer to him.

"You look like shit," I said, just waiting for a response.

He lifted his hands, twirled them in his cuffs, then reached to his bloodied face. I listened to a sickening crack as I could assume he was correcting his jaw. He made a horrible, whimpering groan. I wasn't sympathetic.

"Didn't give me much time to heal, did you?" His voice was off, and he asked while keeping his hands on his face, as if holding it all together. "Cross cuffs. Wow."

"I see you're in a good enough state to speak," I glanced at him,"which means you should be thanking me, since I've allowed you to keep your dick for now."

"I'm gonna go out on a limb and bet you're driving back to my place. Where my friends are. Can't wait to hear your plan."

"You won't."

"Well, you're gonna get yourself and your boyfriend killed."

"And you care, I'm sure. It's not like you were blackmailing me into fucking you with his safety on the line. Do yourself a favor and rest that jaw."

He shifted in his seat, and I thought the movement was simply an act of rebellion. I readied the stake in my hand.

He huffed and shut his eyes, scraping some of the dried blood from his face. "Never been a hostage before."

I kept the stake in my hand, but reached for the radio again, turning it on to an ad for a car dealership.

It was easy finding a space in the lot. I parked just in front of apartment 164. Chanyeol immediately reached for the door handle, but it was locked. I got out on my side and told him, "Wait."

I rounded the car and opened the door for him, keeping the stake in hand. "Out."

"The bossy thing's cute," he said with a short-lived smile. He still seemed to have pain using his mouth.

The moment it was within reach, I grabbed the collar of his shirt. "You walk ahead of me. Not too fast, not too slow, and I think you know the difference."

I kicked the car door shut and we headed towards his door.

"We don't have to be enemies," he said. "I think you'd fit in. All this that went down, it's not personal. I thought Baekhyun was a great fuck."

When we reached the door, I grabbed the back of his head and slammed his face into it twice before I snatched his collar into my grip again.

The door was opened by a different man than the one before. He looked unsurprised and said, "Hi Chanyeol."

"Jongin," Chanyeol said, nodding his head in a strange salute.

Jongin moved out of the way and beckoned us in. I followed Chanyeol, holding the stake to his back, but the room was small and empty.

I looked at Jongin, hoping he'd be a little more helpful than Chanyeol when I asked, "Where is Baekhyun?" 

"I can't tell you that. Sorry." He shrugged, crossing his arms.

"What if you either tell me, or he dies?" I held the stake closer to Chanyeol's back.

Jongin sighed, "Well, it would serve him right for not listening to Joonmyun about staying away from you. But I guess I should do what you say, since his life is on the line."

Chanyeol clapped his hands, laughing lowly. "So cool, Jongin. Bonus points for the coolness."

The extent of my patience had been beyond challenged. I was tempted to kill them both for how hard they'd already made things, but it was concern for Baekhyun that forced me to calm. It wasn't what I wanted to do, but what he needed me to do.

Collecting myself, I lowered the wooden stake, but clutched Chanyeol's neck. I pointed the stake toward Jongin and demanded one more time, "Tell me where."


	9. Chapter 9

They told me I was seeing things. That my father was human, "of course." The shock of the demon's face was messing with my head, or something like that.

My father was never around during daylight, and they encouraged me toward the same schedule. It was the schedule of the demons and it was in our blood to match them - to recognize them - to fight them. It was supposed to be my life's meaning, but it felt so wrong.

Why, if we were supposed to fight these things, was my father keeping one in chains?

"He's been here for 15 years. Never aged a day." Hasang, a man who played assistant to my dad, said this as we walked to the shed one night. There were four men waiting outside of it and I didn't like the look of one of them. "You'll see, Baekhyun," said Hasang. "We release our sins into the demon. To punish it and.. show our power. You'll see. You'll have sins for it too, one day."

Nothing he said made sense. It swirled around my head and the only thing that stuck was that whatever was inside had been in there for fifteen long years. That was almost as long as my life away from my father.

The door opened and a man stepped out, adjusting articles of clothing and looking overly satisfied - nothing like the face of a man who had just come from confession.

Hasang nudged me closer to the door. My father was there, holding the demon. A man from outside stepped in and left the door open for me and Hasang to come in as well. They had me close the door.

Hasang used a knife to cut the man's arm. The man held it over the thing's mouth. They were feeding it blood.

I noticed with a start that it was looking at me, eyes glaring but wet. I couldn't break the eye contact for a long time before Hasang nudged me.

"Watch, Baekhyun," he said. 

I did, and I saw nothing I liked. The man had pushed his pants down and he was stroking himself hard, rubbing himself along the demon's thighs. This wasn't a confession. I felt dizzy, like I might faint again. The sight was worse than the thing's long, monstrous teeth. I didn't want to be part of it.

But I was so scared.

  
** Two Lines: Chapter Nine **   
_Baekhyun's P.O.V._   


Iwas laying across the backseat of a car. My hands were tied together to a cross, just as they had been on the bed. I don't know when I stopped fighting. I only know it had been a long time since I felt so hungry. I vaguely moved my hands around, trying to pull the cross away from them.

The voices in the front sounded distant and echoed. I thought the two must have been speaking over each other, because I couldn't understand the words. My vision lagged the same way my hearing did, slow motion and blurry unless I focused for a long time. If I tilted my head at just the right angle, I could look at the driver's neck, and it made me hungry.

I was bleeding. They stabbed me before they put me in the car. I could feel the wound in my side, aching and wet. Unsurprisingly, bloodloss has a way of making our kind hungry. Drinking blood can heal us faster, make us stronger. That's why the hunger was driving me crazier than anything else.

I didn't know the car had stopped, but the door over my head opened and the man from the passenger seat was pulling me out with his arms stuck under mine. I slumped in his grip and watched my feet drag on pavement as he took me wherever it was we were going. I was relieved just to be out of the car. I raised my head, looked up at the sky, thought of Kyungsoo, and breathed.

I couldn't selfishly give up. I had to survive.

The cross fell from my fingers and clattered on the ground. My strength was fast returning, healing the soreness through my body. We stopped and their voices still sounded distant, but much more clear.

"Ha, does that feel better?"

"Sehun, don't taunt him."

"Come on, Joonmyun. He's too cute to not have a little but of fun with."

I put my feet under me and tore my arms from Sehun's grip. My hands were still tied, but I elbowed back against his chest with all of the strength I could muster.

He side stepped the attack like it was nothing and grabbed my shoulders, leaning in to speak to me. "I'd be careful. You're weak with or without the cross and there's two of us to one of you."

"Give him to me," said the other - Joonmyun. He wrapped his arms around me tightly, so I could feel his strength, then he continued dragging me. He said, lowly, "We're going to get you fed."

I started to fight away, but Sehun stepped in front of me and almost lazily lifted one of my legs off the ground. They carried me through a door. With my vision clearing up, I tried to check my surroundings, to at least figure out where I was. I saw an unmarked street transition into a small, musty kitchen. I could hear live music, muffled, and I thought we must be in a bar.

With a long exhale, I finally got enough voice to ask them, "Where? Why?"

"Sehun, go."

My foot was dropped first, then Joonmyun lowered me into a sitting position and settled next to me, keeping an arm around my shoulders. I was aware of Sehun leaving the room and a door closing before he looked at me and spoke.

"We set up a trail for the hunters and it ends here. They're going to try to speak to the owner of this bar, and they're going to find you drinking his blood. When they do, they'll attack. But we have a plan to trap them before they hurt you. You'll only have to fight them off for a little bit."

His voice reminded me of Chanyeol's. It wasn't that it was deep, but it had the same soothing tones that made me want to trust him - if only I could.

"You're full of shit," I laughed. "Because if it was that simple, you'd lure and fight them yourselves, right?"

Joonmyun sighed and put his hand on my cheek. "They were right. It's a shame to get rid of you."

My sight grew sharper, staring at his face. I saw his muscles tighten - he knew before I did that I was ready for a fight. I blinked my eyes and tested the ropes on my wrists. When I found it less painful to move my hands in them, I knew there was a chance.

I shoved away from him and he readily moved away, getting up on his feet. I mirrored him, standing on my own. I wanted to get my hands free before I approached him, so I took a defensive stance as I worked with the ropes, but Joonmyun bypassed it. He was quick, and he gripped my shoulders before he kneed my abdomen.

I used my tied hands to strike his chin, refusing to be thrown off balance and overtaken. He backed off for a short, satisfying moment, and I kicked at him but missed. He took advantage and spun around me, hitting my back to knock me over, but catching me by the oversized shirt they dressed me in before I could hit the floor.

The door opened, and I heard a new voice. "Exactly what is this? What do you want?"

"Here's your opponent," Joonmyun said, lifting me back onto my feet. I saw a balding man in glasses, looking angrily towards Sehun. I wanted to resist. I needed to resist - but I was too hungry to resist.

Sehun backed out of the room and closed the door, while Joonmyun went for the door we came through. It shut, and I was alone in the old little kitchen with a human.

The human banged angrily on the door Sehun shut him out of, demanding he be let out.

I freed my hands, dropping ropes on the ground. The human wasn't paying any attention to me, he was just uselessly trying to beat through the door.

If I drank from him fast enough, I could still kick both of their asses.


	10. Chapter 10

The door opened and sunlight came pouring in. I screamed at the burn on my skin. The door shut quickly, but the sting remained. The links of chains pressing into my skin now felt uncomfortably tight. My eyes felt like they'd bleed out of their sockets. I didn't attempt to see, even when all of a sudden my hard uncomfortable bindings loosened and I fell against an unusually small human body.

"I'm sorry," he said with panic in his voice. "I'm sorry. I wanted to get you out of here. I'm so sorry."

I knew he was Baekhyun. I wished for it, even prayed that guilt would bring him here to rescue me. I relaxed in his hold and listened closely to the pounding of his heart. He was warm. I wanted to steal it from him. "I brought you clothes," he was saying to me. "You can leave tonight. We can both leave."

We could. We would.

He didn't scream when I bit into his neck. I heard one tiny gasp and he felt deathly still. I thought he must have gone into shock. I brought him down to the floor and pulled away before I was satisfied. I took a shirt out of his arms. I assumed I was supposed to wear it, but I placed it against his neck like a horrible bandage, and I stared at his face, watching his wide eyed suffering.

"Thank you," I said.

He closed his eyes.

  
** Two Lines: Chapter Ten **   
_Kyungsoo's P.O.V._   


"That car," Chanyeol nodded and lifted his bound hands to point through the windshield. "That's Joonmyun's. They would have been in it."

I parked in the middle of the road and only took the car's key and the wooden stake. Chanyeol wasn't much of a threat as long as he had those cuffs on, and I had Jongin climb into the trunk - he'd have a hard time getting out as long as I had the key. I didn't have time for more of a safety net than that. I didn't know if I had any time.

"Wait a minute!" I heard Chanyeol call as I ran ahead to the other car. Jongin had said their plan was set up in the back room of a bar. There were several doors within close sight, and two alleyways. I needed to stay calm and think. I couldn't waste time going back and forth, checking every direction.

I pulled off the jacket I wore, spread the cloth over my fist, then I punched through the window of Joonmyun's car. The alarm sounded. 

A small-framed young man stepped almost instantly into view, moving around the corner of the closest alleyway. I recognized the white of his skin, and we locked eyes.

"You must be Joonmyun," I called.

He scowled and disappeared around the corner. I ran after him, leaving my jacket behind but carrying the stake.

When I rounded the corner, he was ready. He tackled me to the ground, and I swung at him as I fell.

He took a hit to the face, but it didn't effect him much. I was stupid. With adrenaline in my veins, I had forgot I didn't have the strength of the others.

He snatched the stake from me and held the pointy end against my chest. "Quiet," he said. "The hunters are already inside. If you draw attention to us now, we both die."

"Where's Baekhyun?" I honored him as far as not yelling.

His expression changed and he started to lift the weapon over my chest. "I'm going to guess you're not letting this go easily.."

"Please." I grabbed onto his shoulder, held my wrist against him. "Please," I couldn't risk dying now. "Is he dead?"

"Soon," Joonmyun told me, with the sincerity of a promise.

He thrusted the stake down to my chest and I felt it's tip rip my skin. I didn't process how close I was to being gone in the second that he was off of me, pulled by a chain around his neck, a short chain between two shackles.

I sat up and made eye contact with Chanyeol. He waved his fingers as he dragged Joonmyun another several steps away from me. "I have this thing for betrayal," he said like it was some explanation, then he kissed Joonmyun's cheek.

"Chanyeol," Joonmyun looked defeated more than he looked angry.

I got up slowly, shaken for a short time by confusion before focus returned to me. I went to the closest door. It smelled of gasoline and there was a container for it sitting on the ground. The door would only open when I pushed hard. I stumbled through the doorway into a small, musty kitchen.

"Baekhyun."

I saw an older man, dead and bleeding on the floor.

"Kyungsoo."

I turned. Baekhyun stood on the other side of the room, at another door. He looked surprised, but he didn't look scared.

I smiled and walked to him.

The door behind him opened. Two strangers, young men with crosses on their wrists, stood at the doorway, taking in our little scene.

"Go," Baekhyun said. I ran back to the other side of the room, to the door I entered through. Baekhyun was a breath behind, just on my heels. I thought I had left the door opened. I grabbed the handle and turned it. It was scorching. I withdrew my hand and the door blew shut before it ever opened. Fire. The gasoline, I realized - this was Joonmyun's trap for the hunters.

I turned again. The hunters had followed us deeper into the room, holding their weapons and clueless to what was happening. I saw the door across the room close. I tried to push by both Baekhyun and the hunters to get to it before a fire started there. I was held back, a pretty boy blonde hunter shoving me backwards as he brandished a wooden stake.

"Trap!" I tried to warn them. "Fire!"

Baekhyun shoved the hunter in my path away and I used the chance to try again to get to the other door. The other hunter, a tan pre-pubescent little shit, grabbed me and pushed me towards a wall. He looked surprised by his own strength.

A fire alarm went off, a loud ringing bell that finally claimed their attention. I saw flames rising around the exit door. The hunter on me broke away to try and open the other, but he hissed and pulled his hand back after touching the handle.

"We're trapped," he said.

The other hunter attacked Baekhyun. I was sure he knew what was happening. He must have just had 'a first thing's first' kind of attitude.

I ran to Baekhyun's aid. The hunter was a skilled fighter. He swerved away from our hits and knocked me in the head once, and Baekhyun in the stomach three times. His friend came to help him, and like idiots the four of us were fighting in a burning room. Finally, Baekhyun was able to grab hold of the blonde. It was enough to make the other freeze, and I grabbed him. We bent them over the kitchen's small island. Baekhyun leaned over his hunter, looking like he meant to bite him.

I held my arm out to stop him. "Not now. We have to get out of here."

I pushed away from the hunter I held, letting him free. I just assumed that the obvious fact I wasn't attacking him would be a clue.

Baekhyun slowly released the hunter he held as well, looking around. "There's no way out."

The hunters each stood straight. I looked at them - it looked like they were considering fighting more. Then the blonde said, "It's a kitchen. There has to be an extinguisher somewhere."

They looked, even Baekhyun. I stood there thinking of another way. I hardly believed a fire extinguisher would be in a room that was specifically set up for everyone inside to burn. I saw vents, and black smoke was rolling in through both of them.

"Cover your mouths," I said after a moment. "Breathing in the smoke isn't going to help anything. Stay low, too."

Baekhyun lifted his collar over his chin immediately, kneeling some as he moved. The hunters glared at me like I was trying to do them harm, but they pulled their shirts over their faces belatedly. I lifted my own, and tried as I could to stay calm, looking around the room for tools we could use.

We all stopped when there was a banging on one of the doors. I watched it burst open after a moment with a steel ladder falling through it, settling on top of shrunken flames. A man stood on top of it for just a moment, face covered with a bandana. He had a fire extinguisher in hand, and was spraying mist from it toward the floor. His wrists bared crosses - I knew from his tall, slender body that it was Kris.

"Hurry," said the blonde hunter. He led the other hunter onto the ladder and they ran out. I approached with Baekhyun, delayed. There wasn't much time for hesitance, but I really expected more of a fight once we got out. Baekhyun ended up grabbing my arm and urging me along, all four of us following the masked rescuer.

There weren't many flames left, to my surprise, but there was lots of smoke. We kept our heads down on the way out. We wouldn't die, but it'd be unpleasant to suffer the symptoms of smoke inhalation. I had to keep my eyes as wide as possible to see ahead of us, keeping an eye on the hunters. I watched one of them fall, and the other picked him up. I was relieved - they'd have a hard time attacking us in a state like that.

Baekhyun coughed. I moved closer to him as I saw the light from a door ahead, pulling him along.

He and three of the hunters collapsed when we were on the street. Along with the alarm from the building, I could hear the sirens of fire trucks approaching.

"Kris!" A voice shouted near us. I gazed over at a short boy running over. He tried to quiet himself when he asked, "Are those vampires?"

Kris pulled the bandana off of his face, looking over at me.

"Baekhyun, come on." I pulled him to his feet. "We have to get out of here."

Baekhyun coughed a few more times, but after he was walking fine. I looked over my shoulder at the hunters. Kris was looking back at me, coughing into his arm.

I got the distinct impression I didn't have to worry about him.


	11. Epilogue

** Epilogue **

Baekhyun sat behind Kyungsoo, placing a mug of tea down in front of him, and holding another mug for himself. "So, what are you looking at?"

"This one is three bedrooms with an office," Kyungsoo said, clicking the image of a floorplan open on the laptop. "It was just built last year. Near the beach."

"Mm, sand and sunshine. A vampire's dream." Baekhyun laughed.

Kyungsoo lightly hit his shoulder, mostly for the use of the word, then sipped from his tea. "The ocean is pretty at night," he said after a moment.

"You know, we could just get an apartment somewhere. Do we really need such a big house?" Baekhyun smiled, hopefully. "Maybe we could just rent places and travel."

Kyungsoo shrugged. "Not easy to be traveling vampires," he said the word meaningfully, with a slight glare at Baekhyun. "It could be fun, though."

"Really?" Baekhyun straightened, only to slump. "You're not just saying that because you feel guilty, right? About everything that happened.. I was the stupid one."

"Oh, I know." Kyungsoo smirked.

"Hey.." Baekhyun laughed.

Kyungsoo reached over, pulling some of Baekhyun's bangs out of his eyes. "I was wrong to hurt you. The anger I hold towards you isn't fair and I'm sorry. I'll work on it. But I'm not going to live my life in guilt over what's been done."

"Well, good." Baekhyun said. He took a long sip of his tea, looking away, and admitting after a long moment, "Because, well, I am kind of a masochist."

Kyungsoo laughed. "I know that too." He kissed Baekhyun's head. "We've been together this long because we're meant to be. That's just the life we have to suffer, for the sake of destiny, or something or other."

There was a knock on the door downstairs. Kyungsoo stiffened.

"Probably just Chanyeol again," Baekhyun said, getting up. "He really wants out of those cuffs."

"I told him, he's not getting the key from me." Kyungsoo focused on the laptop. He mumbled as Baekhyun left the room, "Not for free, anyway."

A moment later, Baekhyun called out loud, "Uh, Kyungsoo? It's not Chanyeol..."

Kyungsoo took note of the fear in Baekhyun's voice. He was fast to walk down the stairs, but slowed at sight of the doorway.

Kris stood outside, immediately softening when he met eyes with Kyungsoo, looking large eyed and curious again.

"Hi," Kyungsoo said.

"Hi," Kris returned, nodding his head. "Are you still not planning on killing me?"

"Depends." Kyungsoo stepped by Baekhyun's side, grabbing onto his hand. "Did you make up your mind on the subject?"

"I came to thank you," Kris said. "For not killing Luhan and Tao. They're fine."

"I'm not particularly glad to hear it," Kyungsoo said, honestly.

"I know." Kris said, nodding. "You wouldn't have a reason to be... still, thank you."

"You're welcome," Baekhyun said. "That's just how us undead guys roll. Fire safety over blood. You know."

Kris stared at him.

Baekhyun shrugged and started to close the door, but Kris blocked, lifting his hand up.

"Wait, there's something else."

Kyungsoo pulled Baekhyun back from the door, smiling at him. Then he stepped forward on his own, looking attentively at Kris. "What do you want?"

Kris shrugged, trying to take weight out of the situation. "I was hoping I could talk to you. There's a lot I don't know about your kind, and I never, well, had the opportunity to feel safe around.. one of you before."

"We'll tell you our story," Kyungsoo conceded, "if you tell us yours."

Kris nodded.

Kyungsoo turned away. "Baekhyun, we might need some extra tea."

Baekhyun walked off to the kitchen, laughing. "Sure. Make some tea for the hunter. We live such a normal life."

The three of them sat together a short while later in the upstairs den. Kyungsoo was in his overly comfortable chair, Kris looking very upright on the edge of the couch, and Baekhyun taking a stool in the middle of the room.

"So," Kris said, slowly. "How did you two become vampires?"

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes, while Baekhyun laughed and started.

"Well - It was a long time ago."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! As I mentioned at the beginning of the story, this was a practice work. I'm really happy to share it as my first work on AO3! I look forward to writing more here.. maybe wish me luck~?


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